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A Dandy/ #AtoZChallenge

To those who celebrate, Happy Easter! And to those who celebrate in other ways, I hope you have a wonderful day! As for me, today’s the day! I will blog every day this month (except Sundays) for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Welcome to you if this is your first time participating. Welcome if this is your first time reading. For myself, it’s Year #5. Oh! And April Fools! We blog our first letter today, Sunday! Just the way it turned out with the calendar. So here goes……

I’m so pleased to have you stop in and ‘sit a spell’. A little addition to my plan for the Challenge this year will be to share some Missouri Ozark slang each day (with a translation in case you’ve never heard them). I live in west central Missouri, just up the road from the hills that begin the Ozark mountains. We still have church on Sundays, pictures of our boys in their first pair of overalls, and mostly civil politicians. That’s just the beginning.

First, a little about quilting, the book I used for reference and some tools of the trade……in collage format. (Hover over pics for description) Thanks to the editors of 256 Fat Quarter Quilt Blocks, Jeanne Stauffer and Sandra L. Hatch. This book has been in my library for some time and I rediscovered it for the Challenge this year. It has so many blocks to choose from. Hope you all enjoy them.

My 1993 Bernina 1080.

Using gray thread. I think this is enough.

My 10-year old iron. Still with stickers attached from the manufacturer.

My Ottlite that I’ve repaired with duct tape

These are the ‘helpers’ of a quilter. I’ll explain later.

This book is my reference and guide for all the blocks this challenge.

About the block………

#1 each block is bagged up for less confusion.

#2 This is the book illustration

#3 I’ve sorted them in their proper order.

For Letter A, you get “A Dandy”. It’s a 12 x 12 inch block once it’s trimmed/squared up. This is a term we use to cut off those ‘dog ears’ (extra points of fabric sticking out) and to make the edges nice and even. Its name reminds me of all the nicknames my grandmother had for each of her grands. She was an Ozark native.

#4 Finished!

Why the Ozark Slang for the Challenge?

When my eldest daughter moved off to college, whe noticed perplexed looks on the faces of some others when she would use certain expressions or phrases. Do not be alarmed. She is very intelligent and extremely well-spoken. And in no way do I intend to put down the intelligence of my Ozark kin. We just use some different expressions that may or may not have leaked out to the rest of you. So this April, I’m sharing with you the wonderful language of my upbringing. I hope you will let me know how far-reaching these expressions have traveled.

For Today: “Alrighty then.” This is a sentence. It is equal to meaning , “Well you just go right on ahead and do that” or “I guess you’ve made your mind up and I can’t change it.” I once had a boyfriend who used this expression quite a bit. I believe he understood I was pretty stubborn. I prefer to call it Independent. 😉

There are many more wonderful blogs this year that I hope you can spend a couple minutes reading. All you have to do is click here and select something that interests you. To read about the A to Z Challenge and what we are all about, click here.